On Tue, Dec 13, 2011 at 6:58 PM, Steve Litt <sl...@troubleshooters.com> wrote: > By the way, I LOVE the whole concept of invasive species. Living in > Florida, USA, I see a world teeming with life, with plants growing on > plants growing on other plants. I don't know if they're foreign, but > we have these "air potato" vines that climb trees from the ground all > the way to the top. We have Spanish Moss hanging from every tree, and > little mini-vines that completely cover our decorative plants and > would steal all their light if I didn't rip them off. And then of > course we have the fire ant > (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_imported_fire_ant) that came here > from Brazil in the 1930's, liked it here, and made it their home. > Don't try laying on the grass in Florida. > This is completely off-topic, but to bite the bait, you may be interested in another subspecies of ant: the Argentine ant. [1] They like to travel as much as the RIFA, and you'll find a recent The Economist article on the subject [2]. (You may also want to read a much older article on fire ants invasions. [3])
I've had a first-hand experience with the beast while in Argentina this summer, and they're a pretty pesky lot. At the very least they don't bite, but they don't let you do much around the house or the kitchen. Beware of opening (and sometimes buying a non-hermetically sealed) a box a cereals: the pests will sense it, and 30min later they will be in their hundreds collecting their prey. Like to drink a glass of Coke? Fine, but don't even think of leaving the half-finished glass somewhere in the room or you'll be in for a nasty surprise. Bottom line, these beasts can easily spice up your stay in Argentina, and I sure do hope I didn't bring a sample back with me in France. Regards Liviu [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentine_ant [2] http://www.economist.com/node/21540980 [3] http://www.economist.com/node/302195
